Despite what you may have heard, there are virtually no Islamic Terrorists in Europe

Spinwatch:

The statistical invisibility of Islamist 'terrorism' in Europe

Wednesday, 23 May 2007

New figures from Europol, the European police agency, reveal that Islamist terror attacks in Europe constituted 0.2% of all 'terrorism' throughout the continent in 2006.* Unsurprisingly, there has been little in the media about this interesting figure in the month since it was published.

In their first report of this nature - European Terrorism Situation and Trend Report 2007 - Europol reports that across the EU there were 498 terrorist attacks in 2006. These include:

424 'ethno-nationalist and separatist' (mostly in France and Spain)

55 'left-wing and anarchist' (mainly Greece , Italy, Spain and Germany)

1 failed Islamist terrorist attack (in Germany, plus two more attempts allegedly foiled in Denmark and the UK)
1 right-wing terrorist attack (in Poland)

The figures appear to over report left and anarchist 'terror' by categorising some political demonstrations which result in damage to property as 'terrorism'. On Germany it reports that 'the G8 Summit 2007 that still has to be held has already been the target of left-wing and anarchist terrorists.' The report also appears to under report 'right wing' and neo-fascist violence since this is as the report states: 'mainly investigated as right-wing extremism and not as right-wing terrorism'. The report only includes rightwing and animal rights political violence as terrorism if reported as such by member states.

The report does also note that the 0.2% of attacks undertaken by Islamists resulted in fully half the 706 arrests in the EU being of Muslims. The UK itself has seen hundreds of arrests on trumped up charges which are later shown to be false and often propagandist. Indeed one of the two alleged 'foiled' attacks in the figures is the much heralded transatlantic bomb plot in the UK which has certainly adversely affected millions of air passengers. However, it does appear that this plot existed much more in the minds of the security establishment than in reality.

I wondered how well the pattern of media reporting conformed to the pattern of offences or the pattern of arrests. In 2006 the National press in the UK carried 26, 577 reports which mentioned the word 'terrorist' or 'terrorism'.^ Of these 7,620 also referred to 'Islam', 'Islamist' or 'Muslim'. In other words the media reported Islamist violence out of all proportion to the number of attacks. This is hardly helpful to those trying the resist the wave of islamophobia emanating from sections of the police and from the intelligence agencies and politicians. Nor does it give much hope for muslims under attack throughout the UK.

Notes

*Thanks to Eric Herring for drawing these figures to my attention.

^Figures from searches conducted on Lexis-nexis press database.

Europol, 'First Terrorism Situation and Trend Report of Europol released' News Release, The Hague, 10 April 2007. http://www.europol.eu.int/index.asp?page=news&news=pr070410.htm

European Terrorism Situation and trend Report 2007
http://www.europol.eu.int/publications/TESAT/TESAT2007.pdf

And when I do hear about terrorist attacks in Europe the first thing I think of is Gladio...

Saturn Moon and Venus — 10:22pm PDT

This (extremely faint) little dot way to the left is Saturn. The bright dot to the right is Venus. This picture is tipped about 30 degrees counterclockwise so I could get things lined up.

In the sky, Saturn looked quite bright, but to get it into the camera at a similar brightness overexposed the moon and Venus an insane amount.

A Summary of the Iraq Thing

from Smirkingchimp, by way of Bob Harris:

What Every American Should Know About Iraq

by David Michael Green | Jun 15 2007 - 9:06am

. . . So, in that spirit - and as the Founders themselves said - "let Facts be submitted to a candid world".

It's all there. The facts some stubborn folk either are ignorant of or refuse to believe.

The only error is that the myth is repeated that Saddam kicked out the UN inspectors in 1998. He did not. They were withdrawn by Butler, the UN guy in charge, in the face of non-cooperation by Saddam and an imminent military strike by the US.

Yosemite 2007

Bonnie and her daughter Nina and I spent a few days in Yosemite last week. Wait! It was already two weeks ago! How did that happen?

Nina booked us into a tent-cabin for three nights in Curry Village. Despite the nearly all-night giggling of summer-vacationing teenagers and squalling kids in neighboring tents, we had a great time. One day we journeyed up to Vernal Falls (again, you can click on these photos to see them bigger):

Vernal Falls, a composite of 10 photos, believe it or not

and the next we went up to Glacier point to watch the sunset:

Bonnie and Nina, Half Dome and Nevada Falls

Despite waiting three hours for the Yosemite Garage to fix a flat tire which then went flat once again after dark at Glacier point, which meant having to wait a couple of hours the next morning to have it fixed again (the correct way), we had a great time. The last day we cruised up to Tuolumne Meadows where it could not have been more beautiful.

Brush with Greatness

Neil Young has a website. Part of it is a listing of anti-war songs sent in by readers. This is an enormous list of tunes, mostly from well meaning amateur musicians, but including some from real stars.

I sent in links to a couple of tunes, and I've managed to keep them fairly high on the list by periodically clicking on the links to them. I noticed an amazing juxtaposition today, which most likely will never be repeated in my lifetime.


If you look closely, you'll see me sandwiched between JJ Cale and Eric Clapton, and Kris Kristofferson. Wow! And near the top you'll find David Crosby and Graham Nash, and at the bottom Nils Lofgren. Knowing that this is the result of sheer random chance, I will nonetheless pretend that there is some importance to this...

Napa Grad Nite 2007

Last Friday night, June 8, I worked from 10pm until 5am doing portraits for the local High School Graduation Party. I think it was my 15th straight year of getting home as the sun was coming up.

Here are a few of the 37 ink portraits I did (you can click on them to see them BIG! and then hit your browser's back button to get back here):




Each year it's a similar routine. Get to the job site (formerly Napa Fairgrounds, but for the past several years Napa College), check to make sure they have what I need (outlets, lights, table, chairs), get comfortable (I've learned to bring pillows!), wait for the first customer to sit down, and then wonder if I'll still be able to do it. Each year the possibility looms — perhaps this year it won't work.

Some years it has taken two or three portraits to get in the groove, but the last few years, for whatever reason, they seem to come out well right off the bat. It's not like I spend much time practicing — in fact, I hadn't done any since the Grad Nite last year. But all was well.

The crowd this year didn't seem to get into the swing of things as immediately as usual — no one sat down for a portrait until maybe 10:30pm, and frequently I'd find myself looking for customers, taking breaks to eat or wander around. I can remember years when I literally didn't get out of my chair from 10pm until 5am, and helpful volunteers even brought food to me. But I can also remember when I was the only "artist" on site. The last several years, besides me, there have been two caricaturists, Doug Shannon and Dale Axelrod, and this year there were three, the third being Rene Pulido, and they attract much more attention than I do. But we all ended up with a lot of satisfied customers.



Dale Watches Doug

However, after being caricatured, several kids stopped by my table somewhat disappointed at how "unphotographic" their caricatures were, hoping my drawing would be more realistic. They apparently didn't understand what caricatures are all about — these guys are terrific caricaturists. But those kids were my best subjects. They posed like statues, and were rewarded with good portraits.